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Originally Posted by wst3
A also find some of the claims in the Forbes article to be a bit odd. But then there are audiophiles who spend $500 on a power cord and then claim to hear the difference.
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These are the same people who recommend a plug-in UPS to 'clean' power, or spend $100 on Monster Cable wires because their gold connectors make better sound. Or will mark their speaker cables because those wires have polarity - one end connected to the speaker instead of the amp causes worse sound. I also smell the Wicked Witch of the West.
The original amp was Class A. Class B intead amplifies one half of a sine wave. Class C only amplifies sine wave's peak. Class AB is two class B amps where one amplifies top half of a sine wave; other amplifies the bottom half.
Class D does same thing done in CD-Roms, telephone exchanges, modems, and switching power supplies. Class D is a digital amp.
Analog (as in Class A, B, and A/b) means more energy loss. For example, a transistor that is completely off consumes virtually no power. A transistor that is fully on also consumes virtually no power. But a transistor that is only half on consumes half the power; the other half consumed by a load. A digital amp eliminates power loss by operating only fully on or fully off. Switching power supplies are so much more efficient than their old analog equivalents by doing same - fully on or fully off.
Little useful is described in that white paper or article. A digital recording at 32Khz does not have all this distortion. Why then would a digital amplifier at 100 Khz have so much distortion? Well, the devil is in deatils not even implied in those articles. In theory, a Class D amp means perfect amplification - no distortion. And then we apply reality to the concept - those devilish details.
Previously noted was Class AB amps. IOW one class B amp must turn off exactly when the other class B amp (to amplify the other half of a sine wave) turns on. Any overlap means distortion. Still class AB amps have long been the most common, low distortion amps. Class D amps must be designed with the same care. So suddenly only one company finally did design with care?
Again, appreciate why so many audiophiles recommend Monster Cable products. Recommendation not based on science or the numbers. Too often, audiophiles advocate the latest product hyped by Rush Limbaugh gurus. Suddenly someone recommended this T-amp. Suddenly everyone is hyping it as if it were as superior as vaccum tube amps. Nonsense. Maybe there is something uniquely superior to this T-amp. But the history of the source has a credibility problem.
Appreciate that Class D amps are the future. They will get better for the same reasons why switching power supplies output more power in a smaller package. That reason is even touched upon in the cited article / white paper. There is no magic here. Just another example of an amp that has long existed and is getting better over so many years. A technology to be understood by the science - and not by audiophile hype.